Nice, is at the moment, the fifth most populated city in France with almost 400.000 inhabitants, reaching 1.2 M inhabitants in all the urban area.

Although the dimensions of the city are small, its transport network is much bigger (around 174 lines); since 2005, the urban and suburban transport were merge under one company, Lignes d' Azur, operated by the society ST2N, branch of the group Veolia. It also operates a tramway line.

Nice’ T32 is a shuttle route within the port district. It takes a T for being a test line but being operative since October 2008, I believe that the tests are more than surpassed. It was decided on number 32 because a former line 32 with a similar route existed. The route is run by a minibus that it connects Cours Saleya with the Château of l'Anglais and returns to Cours Saleya on a circle route every 25 minutes.

Bogota, officially Bogota Distrito Capital (D. C.) is Colombia´s capital city with around 6,8 million inhabitants. The dimensions of the city make mobility somewhat complicated, in spite of the grid structure (a bit irregular depending on the area) and the big avenues. However, the traffic is chaotic and dense.

As far as public transport is concerned, several bus companies run along the great avenues. Busetas (minibuses) and old buses whose maintenance would not be acceptable in other countries.

In 1998 began the construction of the “TransMilenio”, a High Capacity Transport network, composed of articulated vehicles, which in addition to the core routes, there are feeder services to the surrounding areas and the metropolitan municipalities. The system currently counts 114 stations throughout 9 zones, and it is estimated to be used daily by 1.4 million people. The government of the city is trying to implement TransMilenio all over the city but protests among motorists and citizens, basically claiming there is no space for cars and separate lane for buses are slowing down the process.

The old busetas continue out there, competing with each other, to take the passengers of the stops, as in already I commented in the 32 of Cali, the vehicles are of owned privately, linked to companies (cooperatives), that pay them depending on the number of passengers they collect.

The 132 between Plaza and Favidi, operated by a cooperative Cootranspensilvania with busetas Chevrolet of white and green livery. This route is one of the 24 that the cooperative operates

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its bigger and most populated city, with over 760,000 residents included Jerusalem East. This part, that includes the Old City, is where the Palestine National Authority tries to establish the capital of its future state. The case is that the city is divided by the Jewish population and the Arab population.

This division is transferred to the public transport. The national company of Israeli interurban transport, Egged “shares” with the Arab companies the service from the buses to the Arab vicinities of the city. Egged buses (green livery and fairly new) and the Palestinian bus companies (white with red lines livery and a bit older) start off from the station of the East of Jerusalem, in the Suleiman Sultan street and they go towards its destination, although not always they share stops, except in very specific cases. The buses do not run on Shabat, from half an hour before sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. The schedules will vary according to the time of the year due to the time of sun.

The Arab residents of Jerusalem use the buses of Egged frequently, but the Jewish residents rarely use the Arab buses, partly because whereas the Arabs regularly visit the Israeli city centre, Jews do not frequent the Arab parts of the city.

Route 32 leaves from downtown following the route along Ramot – Begin Expressway – Jerusalem CBS – Machaneh Yehudah – King George St. – Gaza (Aza) St. – Herzog St. to Gilo, with a 15-20 minute frequency in most cases. I am not sure whether the 32 of the Arab companies run along the same route or whether it finishes elsewhere, as there isn’t any information about it in the web that I could find. In both cases, both companies serve the route with articulated buses.

The Colombian city of Cali (officially, Santiago de Cali) is the capital of the department of the Cauca Valley and the third more populated city in the country, with little more than 2 million inhabitants, after Bogota and Medellín. Its metropolitan area increases the population in about 700,000 inhabitants.

As you would expect, the traffic in a city of this size is considerable. However, the public transport service is somewhat chaotic. Innumerable minibuses, locally known as busetas, with capacity between 10 and 20 passengers follow one another throughout the main routes, congesting the transit in the city. They are privately owned vehicles, like a taxi, that have a license to operate as a public service and which, normally, work for a company that operates several routes. The names of the companies usually refer to the color of their livery. It is said that the urban service of bus has to do with the denominated “war of the cent”, that is, drivers get paid by the number of passengers transported per day and several companies cover similar routes, which originates speed excesses and violation of the transit norms.

In order to solve this issue, in 2009 of the denominated Metro de Cali, known as MIO, first stage was inaugurated, consists of a mass system of buses that circulate on a separate platform. Little by little, this system will be expanded throughout the city in successive phases to reduce the number of busetas and, consequently, reduce the traffic considerably. The system consists of main lines, with buses normally articulated in blue livery, numbered and preceded by a T. There are Pretroncales services, served by MIO standard buses, blue and preceded by the letter P. The Expres, preceded of E, have very few stops, which allows them to advance considerably fast through the network.

These main services are supported by feeder lines which, from the main stations, approach the passengers to residential zones, industrial, commercial… with green livery, preceded by A in their numbering. This it is the case of the A32, a circular service that, starting at Flora Industrial MIO station, goes to the one in Chiminangos, then surrounding San Luis and to return by the residential zone of Chiminangos to Flora Industrial. The service is operated with a pair of green microbuses. It runs from 4:32 to 23:44 on work days and 23:30 Saturdays. I could not find information about Sunday service, if there is.

Tel Aviv-Yafo, AKA Tel Aviv, is the capital and second greater city of Israel, with a population just under 400,000 inhabitants. However, its metropolitan area, known as Gush Dan, ascends to little more than 3 million people. It is a relatively new city, established in July of 1906, in the outskirts of the old harbor city of Jaffa. The growth of Tel Aviv caused that soon it passed Jaffa in terms of population until, finally, both cities merged in a single municipality in 1950, two years after the creation of the State of Israel.

The city has a modern fleet of buses, operated most of them by the company DAN. Although in the past, the buses were the targets of the terrorist attacks, the current safety measures have made them more secure. Many of the services begin to 5:00 and give an uninterrupted service until the midnight, although all the lines do not have this schedule. The tickets are bought on the bus from the driver.

Also, you can see yellow minibuses that normally have 10 seats and work in certain routes (4, 5, 16, 51 and 66). These are called “Sherut” (mixture between a bus and a shared taxi) and run along the routes of standard bus with the same number, but with a peculiarity. They stop wherever the client wants. Its price is identical to the one of the buses, but usually they are faster, which them makes more attractive. Also it is possible to use them to travel between cities. But beware, until they do not get complete, that is 10 people, it does not leave the stop.

Line 32, is a standard bus that connects RAMAT-GAN (Winter Ramat Hasikma) in the south, with the Central railway Terminal (Masof Raccevet Merccaz), in center of Tel Aviv. Its frequency is of around 20 minutes, between the 6,00 and the 23.00. It gives service to Nokia Stadium, the central station of buses, the Shalom tower.

Oslo, formerly called Christiania from 1624 to 1878 and Kristiania from 1878 to 1924, is the capital and most populated city in Norway, in addition to being its political, economic and cultural center. Politically, it is a municipality and at the same time, one of the nineteen provinces of the country. It does not reach 600,000 inhabitants but it is around 12% of the total population of Norway. Its metropolitan area extends to the surrounding province of Akershus, reaching a population of 1.4 million inhabitants.

Public transport in Oslo is managed by the municipal transport company, under the name Ruter. The tramway network, Oslotrikken, is composed of six lines that cross the city and extend towards the outskirt districts, numbered from the 11 to the 13 and from the 17 to 19. The underground, known as T-Bane, connects the East and the West of the city with six lines that converge in a tunnel under the center of Oslo. The lines are identified with numbers from the 1 to the 6, with two lines that arrive until the neighboring municipality of Bærum in the West. It operates from 5,30 a.m. to 12,30 at night. In addition, the city has 50 buslines, including 16 lines of night buses that work at the weekend. The majority stop in Jernbanetorget, at the other side of the Oslo Station.

The 32, connects downtown (Kværnerbyen) passing by the Station, the National Theater, towards the northwest, having its end of line in Voksen skog, with a frequency of 15 minutes or 30, according to the time in the day. Mainly, the route is served by articulated buses.

ALSA Grupo S.L.U is a bus company, original of the Principality of Asturias that has become the biggest company of public transport by road in Spain, through merges of other companies. From 2005, it belongs to the British group National Express.

ALSA has 1,259 vehicles and 2,860 employees, moving around 95 million annual travelers. Service VAC-032 corresponds to service MADRID-GIJON and middle stops and it is due to expire on 25-11-2013. This service is operated by ALSA INTERPROVINCIAL S.A.

Like all the transport services, the Government offers the service as a concession; at the moment, offers 17 services each way, with 13 services from the Estación Sur de Autobuses and 4 from Barajas T4, with 5 services Supra, two Supra normal Economy and the rest are standard.

Gracias a Hybrid 87 for las fotos.Riga is Latvia’s capital city. With little more than 700,000 inhabitants, it is the biggest city of the Baltic States. Wit its metropolitan area, it reaches a population of nearly 1 million. Curiously, from its independence from Russia, the population has diminished.

The buses, street cars and trolleybuses in Riga are operated by the Riga Stiksme. The urban transport works daily between 5,00 and 00.30h. Some routes run hourly at night. The network consists of 54 bus routes, 9 tramway routes and 20 trolleybuses, with a dark blue, white and light blue livery. There are also “route taxis” (private microbuses), that run on regular routes, a little more expensive than the standard bus, but more flexible, since they stop where the users need, along the route, of course.

Line 32 is operated by a minubus, connecting Abrenes iela (street) in center of Riga with the west district of Pinki, offering an irregular service that runs approximately every hour more or less. Minibuses operated by Riga Statiksme are actually showing a yellow livery. Pinki and Riga are connected with a more frequent service with line 4.

Doha is the capital of the Emirate of Qatar, a small country located in a peninsula in the Persian Gulf that limits with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Its population is almost 800,000 inhabitants, having experienced a huge growth in the past recent years. The rest of the country will add barely 100,000 additional inhabitants.

The city hosts Al-Yazira television network headquarters, one of main international mass media in Arabic language.

The transport is an area that has been developed widely. Doha International Airport has become an important international hub and it is currently in a considerable expansion. In addition to this, Qatar signed an agreement between Qatari Real Diar Estate Investment and Deutsche Bahn in 2009 to construct to a network of underground and high speed train, creating the Qatar Railways Development Company (QRDC).

As far as the urban transport, the Mowasalat Company, under the name of Karwa, property of the Qatari Royal family, controls more than 3000 taxis that give service to the city, clearly insufficient, overall in rush hours, which generates a great number of complaints among the users. In addition, they have limousines that normally can be found at the airport and certain hotels.

35 lines of bus, also operated by Mowasalat that give service to the entire city, with really low fares, that become an alternative to rush hour traffic and lack of parking.

Route 32 connects the Central Bus Station with the Industrial Zone, via Al Sadd and Khalifa Stadium, with a 30 minute service between 5.03 and 23.56 from Saturday to Thursday and practically, with a similar schedule on Fridays (the festive week day in the Arab countries).

Frankfurt am Main (although everybody calls it just Frankfurt) is the most important city of the State of Hesse, in Germany, although the administrative capital of this state is Wiesbaden. It is the fifth biggest city in Germany and its urban area is a considered to have a population of 5 million inhabitants.

Frankfurt has the fourth greater Stock market of the world, the German Central bank - the Bundesbank- and from 1999, it is the seat of the European Central bank (BCE) Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund.

(RMV) is in charge of the public transport of the region, whereas VGF (Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt a.m. Main mbH) is the municipal company that controls the public transport of the city of Frankfurt am Main.

VGF has more than 220 underground trains, almost 120 trams and more than 250 buses that allow a good mobility within the region. The network has 7 underground lines, 9 tramlines and 42 bus lines, (9 of which are also night services). Most of the routes run from the 4,00 a.m. until the 2,00 a.m.

The 32 makes a semicircular route between the Hauptbanhof (Gallus Güterplatz) passing by Festhalle/Messe, Bockenh. Warte, Miquel-/Adickesallee, Höhenstraße to finish in the Ostbahnhof (Sonnemanstrasse), with a frequency of 10/15 minutes in rush hour and around 30 minutes off peak. On work days, it is operated with articulated buses.

Philadelphia, (aka Philly) is the biggest city in the state of Pennsylvania, located in the northeast of the United States, between New York and Washington D.C. and at the same time, it is one of the oldest cities of the country. In fact, it claims to be the city where the United States of North America was founded.

It is the fifth city of the country by population, with around 1.450.000 inhabitants in its municipality (Philadelphia City), rising to 5.950.000 if we include its metropolitan area and also, the second bigger city in the East coast. Philadelphia is a residential city, comprising different districts, each one with its own characteristics, streets easy to walk and has wide system of public transport that allows to move easily from downtown to the surrounding areas.

SEPTA, (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) manages the public transport of the city, operating buses, subway, elevated train, commuter trains and light rail, as well as the trolleybus. But it actually crosses the borders of Pensilvania, reaching the counties of Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks and Chester, as well as also arriving at the county of Mercer in New Jersey. With more than 2300 vehicles and 196 routes, SEPTA is considered like the sixth national company in number of users, with almost 307 million trips to the year.

Service 32, using standard buses, connects Downtown Philadelphia (Ridge with Lyceum) with the district of Roxborough north of the city (Broad St with Washington Bird). The services are frequent during the day, until every 10 minutes in rush hour and half an hour in off-peak, between the 5,30 in the morning and the 12,30 of the dawn, 7 days a week. Weekend services are slightly reduced.

domingo, 18 de abril de 2010

Hoy hago un poco de trampa... pero supongo que me lo admitiréis. No he podido por más que coger prestada esta foto del foro... donde se ve el tranvía de dos pisos de Hong Kong, con número de flota 32. La línea tranviaria no tiene numeración y todos los vehículos disponen de un cartel en la parte superior que indica el número de flota. Me gustaría agradecer a hkskyline por la foto.Today I am going to cheat a little bit but I suppuse you will admit it. I was visiting the forum and I got across this picture, that I am "pinching". It is a Hong Kong double decker tram, numbered 32. It is actually a fleet number, as the tram line is not numbered. Most of the trams have this type of boards at the front where they display the fleet number.I would like to thank hkskyline for the picture.

Wilmington is the largest city in the small state of Delaware with a population just under 75.000 people. Wilmington within short distance from Boston, Massachusetts and Washington, DC, with frequent rail Amtrak services as well as with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania via SEPTA Regional commuter Rail.

The Delaware Transit Corporation, trading as DART First State, is the primary public transportation system that operates throughout Delaware, USA, with over 400 buses and 57 year round bus routes plus its 8 bus route Sussex County Resort Summer Service and paratransit service.

It operates Wilmington's public bus service with 40 bus lines serving the city and the surrounding suburbs as well as inter-county service to Dover and seasonal service to Rehoboth Beach. New Jersey Transit provides rush hour bus service to Salem County, New Jersey on the 423 Route. Greyhound operates interstate bus service out of the downtown bus terminal at the rail station.

Route 32 is actually called Wilmington Trolley, served by a mock up of an old trolley. It runs from Chase Center on the Riverfront, Riverfront Park & Ride, Market Street, Downtown Wilmington, Rodney Square and back, serving Frawley Stadium. It is served with one bus, as it takes less than 25 minutes to get back to the starting point, running from 6.31 am to 6.25 pm, Monday to Friday.

Algiers is the capital and the greater city of Algeria, with a population around 2,2 million inhabitants that increases to almost 4,4 million if the metropolitan area is included. The company of urban and suburban transports of Algeria (ETUSA) operates the service of buses in Algiers and peripheral zones. They are in operation 99 lines, 39 of which are urban and operate from 5:30 h to 00:45 h, using more than 300 vehicles, most of them Vanhool. Also, it has 12 megabuses, biarticulated buses. In addition, a line of meter and another one to street car are under construction. The 32 connects Place Maurice Audin (Central Square in the surroundings of the Grande Post) with El Madania, giving service to the golf course.

Delhi, officially National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), is the second-largest metropolis in terms of population in India (after Mumbai) and the eighth largest metropolis in the world with more than 12.5 million inhabitants in the territory and with around 16 million residents in the National Capital Region area. Sometimes you will hear Delhi, others New Delhi… The explanation is that the name Delhi is often also used to include some urban areas near the NCT, whereas New Delhi, the capital of India, is a part of the city. You can also hear Old Delhi, which refers to the old area of the city, where you have a very interesting traditional trades market.

One thing you can tell when you get to India, is that it is a nation on the move. They are not static. And to do so, they rely on private cars and also public transport. Public transport in Delhi is provided by buses, auto rickshaws (that are everywhere) and a metro rail system currently in a huge expansion stage, due to the Commonwealth Games, due to be held this summer in the capital of India. Buses are the most popular means of transport catering for about 60% of the total demand. The state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is a major bus service provider for the city. The DTC operates the world's largest fleet of environment-friendly CNG buses that has dramatically reduced the pollution in the city. You can find the really run down old buses, with the white yellow and green livery, which are the cheapest but also the most uncomfortable, then you have the green buses, which are low floor, more expensive and comfortable, and the red buses, low floor and air-conditioned, obviously, the most expensive of all.

Currently, Delhi has around 8000 buses, of which 6000 belong to DTC while around 2000 are Blue line buses, (3125 low-floor, 1100 semi low floor and 1000 air-conditioned). There are plans to implement GPS on the fleet. DTC has more than 360 routes and 34 depots around the city.

There is no 32, but I found the GL-32. Along its route you can also find the 832 and 332, so I guess that it could be classed as the main line. It runs from Karam Pura Terminal (west of the city), along 33 kms passing through Connaught Place (city centre) to Noida Sec-34 (east of the city), at intervals of 18 minutes during peak hours and 36 minutes off-peak. Initially, it doesn’t have green or red buses.

Pune is a city located in the Western Indian state of the Maharashtra, where Bombay is the biggest city. In any case, Pune is the capital city of the district of Pune and 8th greatest urban conurbation of India with a population of over 4.600.000 inhabitants, being the second biggest city of the state of the Maharashtra. More than 1,5 million vehicles they are registered in Pune, but it increases to a rate of more than 600 additional per day.

The company in charge of the public transport in the city of Pune and its metropolitan area is PMPML (Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd). PMPML was formed after the merger of the company of public transport of Pune (PMT) and Pimpri-Chinchwad (PCMT). At the moment, the PMPML has over 1000 buses on the streets and over 300 routes. In addition, Pune is in the process of implementing a BRT network, (Bus Rapid Transit).

The truth is that I do not know of where the 32 bus runs, as after my visit, I noticed all the route signs were in Hindi. And the PMPML website is not operative either.